South Africa should start preparing for a white president

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As voting patterns shift in response to poor service delivery and stalled economic transformation, an analysis explores how the failure of black political…

While addressing the Jafta Masemola annual lecture in Atteridgeville a few years ago, former PAC president Letlapa Mphahlele warned his fellow members that the time for obsession with liberation struggle slogans was over. “One settler, one bullet” was impertinent; it is time for ballots, not bullets. The ballots meant they should even persuade the same settler to vote for them. In essence, he cautioned them not to diminish the slogan; our political identity, by provoking the emotions of the masses, while they are subjected to abject poverty by their own black leaders.

The 2026 local government election results count unexpectedly revived this discussion. The subject reared its head again after a long time, when the IEC's leaderboard showed that the blue party was leading in three cities in the Gauteng province, with particular focus on the City of Johannesburg, which was contested by Helen Zille. The discussion and questions began to lean toward fear and threats about what a white leader can do to a black township resident. The shock was that the Democratic Alliance was receiving so many votes from the black population, as opposed to the only verified vote from the white population in Orania going to the EFF.

The land question is another critical feature of our historical political power struggle, consistently exposing that our black leaders are prioritising political office over the genuine demands of the masses. For years, the needle has been moving slowly, and the majority of indigenous people are still waiting for the return of their ancestral land, but our leaders to date remain silent and comfortable with land still in white hands. They have not shown the same discomfort they have with the white leader presiding over the city voted for by black people. Political power and land reform go hand in hand as core liberation priorities.

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